A new report has found that sixth form colleges will require an additional £710 of funding per student in 2025 to keep pace with rising costs and ensure that every young person receives the additional support they currently need.
The report, The funding shortfall in Sixth Form Education, was produced by London Economics on behalf of the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA). It finds that in real terms, average funding for sixth form colleges in 2023/24 is 15% lower than it was in 2010/11 £5,760 per student compared to £6,820 per student.
To ensure that funding in 2025/26 simply remains the same in real terms as in 2023/24, sixth form colleges would require an extra £410 per student to keep pace with rising costs. To provide young people with the additional hours of student support (e.g. mental health and welfare services) and non-qualification time (e.g. employability training, tutorial activities) that colleges report is desperately needed would require a further £300 per student.
London Economics also calculated the additional cost of delivering an extra 2.5 hours of teaching time per week, a key element of the government’s proposed Advanced British Standard qualification. This would require an additional £1,760 per student to deliver the additional teaching hours; including the £710 required to keep pace with costs and provide the required level of student support/non-qualification time.
